Teacher cuts pupil's hair, mum files police report

Hey hey! What do you know! This thing was mentioned in newspaper again today!

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC...ules--Heng

Parents must show respect for rules: Hengby Ng Jing Yng 04:45 AM Sep 13, 2012

SINGAPORE - The woman who went to the police after her 12-year-old son's S$60 haircut was ruined before his PSLE oral exam last month received a stern response from Education Minister Heng Swee Keat yesterday.

The "simple fact" was that the boy had been reminded "over and over again" to trim his hair, said Mr Heng. When that failed, the school sent a letter to the parent.

"The mother's response was that her son was dyslexic and, therefore, forgetful. Dyslexic people are not forgetful. As one writer puts it in a media commentary, by raising such a hullabaloo, 'the mother ... did herself and her son no favours'," he said.

Citing that case, as well as a man who used a string of expletives about the teachers in his son's school, Mr Heng said the Ministry of Education (MOE) "must take a firm stand against unreasonable demands". He urged parents to be gracious to others and show respect for rules, or the younger generation will not follow suit.

"Soon, discipline will be eroded, the tone in our schools will deteriorate, and the tone in our society too," said Mr Heng, who added that good potential candidates may be turned away from being teachers.

Despite such incidents, Mr Heng noted that the majority of parents today are "supportive partners", and more help will be given to assist them in educating their children.

He launched the Parents in Education website yesterday, which contains information such as parenting tips, educational news and learning resources.

Responding to Mr Heng's comments, Madam Serene Ong - the mother involved in the hair-cut incident - told TODAY that she went to the police to file a "personal record" only after calling the MOE and on being told that it would be fine to go to the police.

Mdm Ong said: "There is no absolute right or wrong in this matter but as a parent, there should be a courtesy call from the teacher first before cutting my son's hair. We would like to work with the teachers but it also takes two hands to clap."

From what I know now, the mother is not being gracious (amongst other descriptions), the child probably is at fault for not passing the letter and warnings on to his mom, and the teacher is (still) in the wrong for not calling the parent up first before dishing a punishment.

The police part is amusing though.

/edit: Some epic quotes from the minister's full letter to the public [of which parts of it were already included in the article above]. Some are hilarious when taken out of context. Original article here: http://www.todayonline.com/Commentaryand...kids-learn

'"Mr Heng, there is not one mother in Singapore who is not stressed about her child's education." And indeed, some dads are, too.'

'... when she got 80 marks in a test, her parents asked her why her cousin in a better school got 85.
So she worked very hard and, when she got 85, her parents told her that her cousin had now gotten 90! She felt that she had done her best, but it was never good enough. Thankfully she remained a very cheerful girl.'

'I [as in, Mr Heng] asked what [the high-end kindergartens] assessed, and they said they assesses language language skills and motor skills. I heard of one child who could not perform because the test was held during his naptime, and his grandparents were distraught.'

'[some schools] have a state-of-the-art supercomputer to help them to coordinate and schedule students' homework.'
'... allows students to learn to schedule their homework over the week -- an important life skill!'

'some [parents] will choose to have [their children go for] tuition even if it is not necessary, just to "make doubly sure" as we love to say".'

'In China, one tuition agency had a unique tagline: "You may not be a genius, but you can be a father to a genius!" Now which father would not want this? In Singapore, we have the opposite advertising.'

'Tertiary students have also volunteered their time to help weaker students.' [yeah, for $30-50 an hour LOL]

Hadriel